Chapter 7: Event Horizon

IN THE HIGH TECH LABORATORIES OF THE BAXTER BUILDING, HEADQUARTERS TO THE FANTASTIC FOUR...

THING: Okay, Stretch, I got you're nucyular clock or whatever.

MR. FANTASTIC: Atomic clock, Ben.  You guys stand over there at the other end of the building, and watch the clock, which I've programmed for a synchronized start with my atomic wristwatch.  Ready?  On my mark. 3-2-1...now!

THING: Awright, it's goin'.

MR. FANTASTIC: Aaaaaaand...stop.

MR. FANTASTIC: Okay, Ben, what have you got?

THING: I got 10 seconds, on the dot.

INVISIBLE WOMAN: What do you have, Reed? 

MR. FANTASTIC: I've got 9.999999999999989 seconds.  Sure enough, time is moving slower near the baby--the Monad.

DR. STRANGE: So what do you think it means?

MR. FANTASTIC: To make a long story short, it means you were right.  We are in totally deep crap.  I better run some tests.

A FEW HOURS LATER...

MR. FANTASTIC: I've run just about every diagnostic test I can run on an infant, and the findings are...astonishing.  The MRI and neurologic function tests suggest that this child isn't growing at a normal developmental rate; rather, it's inflating.

THING: Inflating?  Like a balloon?  Then let's just pop the little squirt an' let all the air out!

MR. FANTASTIC: No, Ben...not inflating like a balloon.  Like the cosmos.  You can read about it on Wikipedia, as I know my scientific exposition grows tiresome.

MR. FANTASTIC: Unlike the raw matter of our universe, however, this Monad is a biological organism.  Genetically speaking, it was designed to grow at an exponential rate--inflation--increasing in mass and density until it becomes, essentially, a living, breathing black hole.  

MR. FANTASTIC: Based on my calculations, given the Monad's current mass and rate of inflation, in approximately twenty one years, give or take a few weeks, it will form a more supermassive black hole than anyone has ever even theorized would be possible.

NAMOR: Twenty years?  Well what's all the fuss?  We've got plenty of time to figure something out, don't we?

SILVER SURFER: Pshaw.  Don't we wish?  It'll be twenty years until it reaches maximum density, precipitating the Big Crunch of all existence as we know it.  But we'll all be long gone before that.

NAMOR: So how long we got 'till this thing's density or whatever actually takes us out, Reed?

MR. FANTASTIC:  This is just a rough calculation based on the data available, but I'd say, at best, we've got seven days, nineteen hours, and thirty-one minutes.

NAMOR: In that case, I'd say we're pretty royally screwed. 

MR. FANTASTIC: Hulk, where did you get this baby?  Who gave it to you?

HULK: Hulk not remember too much.  Some lady just say, "Here, Hulk, hold baby," so Hulk hold baby.  Lady walk away so Hulk say "Hey lady, take baby," and she say she be right back, but...she not right back.

 

MR. FANTASTIC: We've got to get you to Westchester so we can have a telepath explore your memory and give us some clues to who gave it to you.  Once we do that, we can find out who created it.

MR. FANTASTIC: Because that's one thing I know for sure.  This Monad didn't come into existence by itself.  It's genetic structure reveals that it was definitely created by someone.

HUMAN TORCH: You think Dr. Doom is behind this?

MR. FANTASTIC: No, Johnny, this isn't Doom's style.  And as devious as Victor is, he wants to control the universe, not to destroy it.  I'm afraid that whoever did this may be even smarter than Doom, and far more...

MR. FANTASTIC: ...sinister.

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 8: INTERCEPTION!!!